Mattel has been the home of many important properties and toys for children, from Barbie to Hot Wheels and many more. But for a generation of kids, perhaps the biggest deal from Mattel was Masters of the Universe.

The line was the result of a few things. First, and perhaps most importantly, Mattel CEO Ray Wagner had made the mistake of declining to produce action figures based on Star Wars, leading to Kenner enjoying massive success with the film’s toy rights instead. Mattel had attempted a few times to compete with Kenner in that market, to no avail. Then, Conan the Barbarian came along and inspired Mattel designers to create the character of He-Man. The original pitch was called the “He-Man Trio,” which included three prototypes: a barbarian, a soldier, and a spaceman. The barbarian won out, and became He-Man himself.

The original name for the line was “Lords of Power,” but this was changed to Masters of the Universe after the marketing team believed the original name sounded too religious. Several other characters were soon designed for the line, including the archnemesis Skeletor, Man-At-Arms, Beast Man, and Battle Cat; the initial wave of figures also included Teela, Mer-Man, Stratos, and Zodiac.

The action figures were packaged with mini-comics that presented the lore of the Masters of the Universe world and the backstory for the characters. The initial round of four mini-comics, beginning with He-Man and the Power Sword, were written by Donald F. Glut and illustrated by Alfredo Alcala. The second wave of figures came with seven new mini-comics that were written by Gary Cohn, drawn by Mark Texeira, and produced by DC Comics.

By the early 1980s the figures had proven so popular to spur a comic book, as well as the successful He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated series. Fellow hero, She-Ra also starred in her own animated series, She-Ra: Princess of Power. In 1987, He-Man made the jump to live-action when Dolph Lundgren portrayed the hero in Masters of the Universe. The franchise essentially went on hiatus beginning in the early 1990s when popularity died down.

Masters of the Universe toys were relaunched in 2002, and led into more toy lines, animated series, and comic series. Writer-director Kevin Smith developed the Masters of the Universe: Revelation animated series that streamed on Netflix in 2021. He-Man is returning to live-action in the new movie Masters of the Universe movie starring Nicholas Galitzine as the hero.